The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, MAY 20, 1881. FERRETS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1690, 20 May 1884, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, MAY 20, 1881. FERRETS.

A practical settler in the Lower Valley, we refer to Mr H. H. Jackson, of Stonescead, has for several years past been engaged in warning tho public against ferrets.. His opinion must carry a certain amount of. weight, because he has had on his own property a tolerably extensive experience'of rabbits, and he would be very unlikely to bo unduly prejudiced against their natural enemy. It is possible in tho conflict Ferret v.- Rabbit >the remedy may becomo worse than the disease, and evidence against the festive ferret certainly crops up day by day of a most compromising character. From all we can learn a ferret when' ho enters a fowl house behaves in a somewhat promiscuous manner. In the instance which we recorded yesterday as occurring at Masterton, the sagacious natural enemy simply picked out the most valuable bird in the shed and was content. In other cases he has been known to kill a dozeu poultry right' off before settling down to his supper. When he is hungry ho probably satiates himself with the first victim that he catches in his teeth, but when ho is simply amusing himself he, with sportsmanlike instinct, accumulates as many carcases as possible, Ho always attacks his prey on one particular spot on the side of the head, and that particular spot is " dead on" to the jugular vein. There is only one wound visible in the fowl which has attracted his attention, but that one is enough. We have been told that a happy family of pet lambs which died suddenly one night at Tauherenikau showed the identical mark on the identical spot in each animal which indicated that the clever operator was Dr Ferret. These details are interesting to the proprietors of prize poultry who are likely to have their henroosts visited. Latterly we know from personal observation that there have been plenty of rabbits about Masterton, and that burrows by the score can be counted within a quarter of an hour's walk of tho Post: Office.- These rabbits are the animals that the ferrets) were imported to consume. The ferret has been educated to mako a meal of them, but apparently he is not satisfied with one dish, but comes into town to seek a change of diet. Possibly too he finds in the winter time centres of population warmer than the open country side, and elects to domesticate himself in an outhouse during the cold weather. At any rate ho is amongst us, and the question of whether he is not a natural enemy of man as well as of rabbits is likely to force itself on our attention. If he proves to be so, the practice of turning out ferrets to forage for themselves will have to be discontinued,